Guild Wars 2

This is an attempt to stave off a nerf for ranger. Really? you compare S&R to Portal? Really? The reality is that portal can be strong.. in a well coordinated team on voice.

In everyday solo queue it’s almost useless because organizing a PUG to use such a tool is pretty difficult. No it’s in no way an equivalent.

S&R works quite well for a solo player and requires no real coordination. Portal requires an organized and disciplined team to use well. Without that, other utilities are a much better choice.

No I would not say it’s worth it. The one saving grace is gliding.. but it’s a lot to pay for that one thing.

And yeah, I bought the pay to play game too… and then had to buy the expansion and got nothing in return.

I love the idea of a da vinci glider. Broomstick and Magic Carpet gliders please!

I was “working” to unlock Chronomancer tonight/this morning on my alt account.

Truthfully, as hard as Chronomancer was nerfed ( after I bought HoT specifically to play the class) it’s not worth the effort. I do better on PU condi than on Chronomancer.

I have to admit that I’m angry that there was huge power creep until after the initial HoT buying pulse. This encouraged people to buy. Then, the nerf hammer fell. It feels pretty deliberate.

The great trains from the first days of HoT are gone because the Silverwaste is easier and more profitable to farm. So now unlocks are a long and painful process.

It’s no longer worth the time and effort to get through the unlocking proccess.

The way to kill Adryn is this;

The Orb is physical so if you stand in a spot that has a gap between you and him, it will drop to the forest floor without making it to you. Stand on a catwalk or other platform so that the orb would have to cross an air gap to reach you.

You can almost afk him doing this.

Discredited myself? How, pray tell? What I said was accurate if not pleasant to face.

As a matter of fact, I’m a sis. Yes I do PvP often. I agree the power creep was to force people to buy the extension. Once the buying pulse was over they nerfed it hard.

GW1 players have remembered to me a similar situation. It was the straw that pretty much killed gw1 for many people.

Mesmer is extremely weak at the moment. As to scrappers; Noobs die because they continue to attack with 10 stacks of confusion. Yes. under those conditions you’ll die fast.

The elixir s really kittens me off. It has the same basic traits as well of precog used to. It also allows mobility and can be used more often.

Scrapper is actually pretty kittened tanky. A scapper can hold a point for minutes at a time until I can down him by attrition.

I can’t 100-0. I can get a scrapper though, given time.

I can tell you exactly “what is up” with Condition build Mesmers like me. ANET has made most of the other builds and Chronomancer into very poor choices.

While it’s true that PU condimancer tends to attract a lot of QQ on forums, there really aren’t many good alternatives. You can expect to see a lot more of this style play.

If that’s the case, what’s the point of buying HoT?

Where Mesmer is concerned, I’m having much more success on PU condimancer than I do as a Chronomancer. Sad, considering that I bought HoT (twice) specifically to play Chronomancer.

In The Army, I learned that officers don’t worry much about morale when the troops are kittening. Silence is the danger sign. It’s deathly silent often in the pvp lobby these days.

Here’s what I’m seeing:

WvW: This mode is a non starter because population has never been balanced.

PvE; Not bad at all and fun despite being denigrated by pvp players.

HoT Maps: Neat maps and mechanics. The day/night cycle, holding rally points and the dustoffs remind me strongly of the vietnam conflict. ( no, I’m not a vietnam vet, I went to Iraq ) Unfortunately, silverwaste is faster , easier and more profitable to farm. So, the population in the HoT maps is often too low to make advancing elites or HoT skills easy.

Matchmaking: “ick”

HoT Elite Specs: After the initial buying pulse, the elite specs were nerfed so hard that in some cases the core classes are actually better. I can’t speak to the thinking or what happened at ANET.

However, this has the appearance of a deception. I and many others bought HoT for the elites. How can this not create bad feeling?

Tournaments: The first season allowed “smurfing.” That created an atmosphere so bad that people wearing the pvp backpack and /or displaying legendary rank can be and are openly called cheats.

Solutions:

WvW: gate population so that no side has an overwhelming numerical advantage.

-edit- or give the undermanned side a large number of npc defender troops to make up the difference.

PvE: Don’t fix it, it ain’t broke.

HoT Maps: Either increase the rewards or decrease those of the silverwaste. Spirit Vale is not an issue since most players won’t be able to get on a team anyway.

Matchmaking: I honestly have no idea. Except, don’t allow profession stacking.

Elite Specs: These need to actually be elite specs. Otherwise, there isn’t value for money. The Elite needs to be significantly stronger than the core.

Thief pets are a less than optimal choice in PvP. They don’t work particularly well and haven’t as far as I can remember.

I find elixir S annoying, particularly in light of anet’s destruction of Well of Precognition.
The Ele lightning bolt suxs too if they get the drop on you.

Must admit though, I don’t see anything that is outstandingly OP.( yes, this is Ithilwen saying this ) I will (very) grudgingly admit that balance is moving into better territory.

Having said that, Mesmer is hurting badly. History tells me that anet will allow that situation to continue for years.

The problem comes in when you have a coordinated group of two or more of the same profession. There’s a synergy when two or more can stagger there cooldowns and use complimentary skills.

The first situation that comes to mind is two rangers. Alternating pet cc and entangle. One CC’s while the other uses rapid fire. one pet cc’s, then the other. In a scenario like that, the cheese factor gets very high.

ANET needs to read the forum.

I agree 100% and have suggested similar. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone’s listening.

Do listen to the kittens complaining. Those kittens keep your company in business. Now how about being even handed and not disfavoring Mesmer?

I’d love to see condi-clone death return to the game. It shouldn’t have been removed to begin with. This would be one way to reduce mindless aoe and aa spam.

I think office politics at anet will prevent it being considered. Josh Davis complained on stream about being beaten by this build.

By implication, the game thinks you are already in the match. Time to change your password and check that you aren’t being hacked.

You ought to post this over in the support forum.

Agreed. I post here mainly to vent and debate with other players. There isn’t any honest expectation that it will be taken into account.

No, most Mesmers don’t have double Moa. Chronomancer has been cut down so far that it’s not practical to run in most situations.

PU condimancer is the new / old meta. Now I’m laughing because many who complained about chrono so hard were the same who complained about PU and confusion and clone death… Now they get to live with the PU they hated so much.
As to superior mobility.. it doesn’t happen in practice.

I’m seeing what look like ninja changes. Rev suddenly got a lot tankier.

Gods I hope not. A “balance” patch would mean ending the last vestige of power for Mesmer and more boost to rev and reaper.

Honestly, I’m seeing changes. I strongly suspect there are ninja changes being made and not announced. Rev seems extra tanky again, as an example.

Based on what I’ve seen I believe that one or more developers at anet dislike Mesmer intensely.

I came in just after the huge confusion nerf and suffered quite literally years of not being able to even engage a Warrior. They would laugh at my damage then one shot me with stun + 100 blades. Thieves and Necros were a similar scenario as were ele’s.

Josh Davis complained on stream about being beaten by a clone death Mesmer. That build was not only nerfed but completely removed from the game a short time later.

Illusionary Elasticity and other traits were left broken, literally for years. PU Mesmer was nerfed under the pavement when it was successful in pvp.

I bought HoT specifically to have a competitive mesmer. I splurged and bought two deluxe versions, one for each of my accounts.

Now… Chrono has been crushed so hard that PU is actually a more effective choice. So my investment in HoT yields nothing.

On every occasion over the past 3+ years that Mesmer has gotten a significant boost, it has been either broken and left that way or severely nerfed within a short time.

I think that the decision making process at the balance team is not working properly. My suspicion is that it has to do with office politics and/or the isolation of the devs. Is most or all of the testing done on internal servers rather than actually in game?

I’d prefer that anet explain it’s seeming dislike of Mesmer. Also, how about some insight into balancing? It looks pretty random and/or personal agenda from where I’m sitting.

Nevertheless, PU is working. I’m running into a lot of people not running good cleanse. Granted, this is unranked. The mercenary amulet change worked. As an aside, I’m running into very few chronos.

I have no confidence at all in anet’s “balance” team. At this point, I don’t even believe that they have good intentions.

I’ll believe positive news when I see it.

Hoping to be rid of me, dear? I’m leveling a Blade Dancer in another world.

Actually I’m playing a troll – ish build because chrono ( for which I bought HoT ) was nerfed to below core status. So, I picked up an old idea that looks like it will work ( and does, in the current offense-centric scene ) and one that kittens off the same players who qq about Chrono.

Your theory crafting sounds good on paper. In actual play, I’m wrecking folks. Give it a try.

That is essentially what condi clone death did. Unfortunately, Josh Davis got owned by a condi clone death mesmer and the build was entirely removed from the game about a week later.

I don’t see this being let back in.. though I personally would love to see the return of clone death.

I changed it slightly, adding agony sigil to the pistol. I’m consistently outscoring the chronos I play with. That’s both in personal score and damage output. It’s pretty rough when a build from a year ago is consistently beating out the brand new HoT elite.

PU was never my thing, so I am not playing it optimally for sure. I did get flamed for playing PU though :P It’s hard for me to hide and let damage tick.

The big weakness is that I’m counting on avoiding big condi hits for the most part. The generosity sigils, invis, and evasive mirror are also some defense.

I dropped the chronomancer traits ( the reason I bought HoT ) and am having some success with PU condi phantasm Mesmer atm.

I’m currently running something over 50% wins and even beating thieves from time to time. For me, that’s outstanding.

Here’s what I’m doing;

I dropped the Chronomancer line entirely. I’m running Illusions: III/III/I , Dueling III/I/III and Chaos III/I/II. I chose Rabid Amulet, Krait Runes, Sigil of Tormenting and Sigil of Generosity. Utilities are Blink, Decoy, Signet of Midnight and Mass Invisibilty. Weapon choices are Sc/T and Sc/P

Yes, this is essentially the old PU condi Mesmer. Get your Duelists out then bob and weave. Let the phants do the heavy lifting. Shatter only if it’s advantageous or you need to for distortion.

One burst sequence that works; (while closing the enemy ) Dodge, Scepter 3, as you get in close summon iWarlock, f3, Torch 4. When this works well, you’ll stack 9ish confusion on your enemy and be stealthed with torch. Dodge out of the AA and swap, then iDuelist. You’ll still be stealthed if you do this fast and can decide what to do from there.

When ANET notices this I fully expect phants to be nerfed under the pavement. So, get your licks in now.

The trouble is that it’s pay to win ( if you choose specific classes .)

True enough on the voice actor.

bumping this thread on the off chance it might happen to get read by anet.

First revealing the personal information of another is against the TOS in most games and forums.

Second, I have no idea who that is and it isn’t my alt.

Third, I’ll stand by what I said until proven wrong. I don’t expect to be, frankly.

Well, if history is a guide; The next major “balance” patch can be expected in a year or so.

I have played GW2; 6014 hours over 1231 days on my main account. (3.37 years. 250.58 days actually playing in-world ) My alt account would add about 50% more to those numbers. Recently, I’ve been directing the majority of my gaming time and money to other worlds. This is because of the most recent patch and the actions of a forum moderator.

In another newly released MMO, I came across an outstanding idea.

(I have no honest expectation that anet will consider what I have to say. This is a last ditch effort to salvage some enthusiasm for the game. )

While leveling a Blade Dancer, I have been summoned to a “Secret Training Room” at intervals of a level or two. There, I have been explicitly taught combat combinations and techniques and practiced them against dummies.

WOW! How amazing! This would have saved me a lot of pain and frustration learning to play GW2. It would have made me a better and happier player.

Playing mostly solo, I’ve had to glean what I could.

In fact, I run dungeons regularly. Very often I’ll find that (for example ) thieves of 60+ level won’t know about a backstab combination or how to make stealth via combining a field and finisher. Let alone the fact that they can team with others on combos.

Because I rarely found players willing to teach, I will often take a thief aside after a dungeon and teach them the basics of stealth and backstab.

These NPC teaching and practice sessions in the other MMO will save me a great deal of frustration. They provide basic knowledge so that I don’t have to learn it by being hammered repeatedly into the ground.

You should consider this, ANET.

Even worse. PvP was pay to win. After getting the money, the classes are being wrecked. So not only was it pay to win, it was pay to get nothing.

I’d like to see that research and the method. Statistics can be twisted to say anything you want them to.

(Though I admit, I’d love to see rangers slapped down.)

I ought to know, I once did a project for a large corporation showing a 30% improvement in performance. It was pure smoke and mirrors, all we did was present the statistics differently.

@Chaith You have made it very clear you want mesmers out of the game.

Both “sunfish” and “rom” gloated about the gutting in the last On Point. I assume you are of the same ilk.

There will be no more bunker mesmer. ANET has lengthened the cooldowns, destroyed the defense and much reduced both heal and dps.

Actually I avoided the mantra and pu builds because of the QQ. I wanted to be seen as playing honorably.

The same of chronobunker. Though now… I think I’ll bandwagon whatever trolly build I can find. Maybe PU condi is due for a comeback.

As to requiring Shatter to be overpowered to use it… well I put that down to a total lack of experience playing mesmer and a strong anti mesmer bias.

I seem to remember you advocating for the turret build (last year) and then for using low level toons to tank your mmr to exploit the tournament system.

Go ahead, claim that the turret build you advocated for wasn’t OP, I defy you to do it.

You ought to understand advocating for a class.

anet listens to volume. Reason appears to be a secondary consideration. The gameplay after the patch will vindicate what I’m saying.

I’m not defending ChronoBunker. I’m defending Mesmer generally. I got good and sick of being underpowered while I waited literally years for anet (lower case deliberate) to fix Mesmer after the confusion nerf.

Now it looks very much like that cycle is repeating and it really kittens me off. anet has NEVER done frequent or regular balance patches. There seems to be no reason to believe they will start now or fix this nuke nerf in the forseeable future.

@Chaith

First, I think you’re dead wrong. I predict that few if any Mesmers will be played in pro and fewer in normal (which is actually the scenario that matters.) You citing the alleged opinion of your buddy well /shrug.

As to Chronobunker without Well of Precog being “the best build in the game,” I’m laughing aloud.

Your teammate isn’t playing with alacrity 50% nerfed. Nor is he dealing with long cooldowns and reduced clone production from all skills. ( and the concomittant losses in both dps and healing ability )

Your “simulation” reminds me of the simulations that Donald Rumsfeld used to convince the leadership that the US would be welcomed as liberators and the second gulf war would end within days.

I sincerely hope you try it. Be prepared to get booted right off the map.

Yes, in my fourth year in the game.. I agree. The old system was better.

That was directed at me. I replied generally as follows…

The statement is based on a false premise and is therefore not valid. I don’t want my class or any other to be OP.

When I bought HoT I did so with the expectation that Mesmer would ( finally ) be competitive. Nothing would please me better than to see a well balanced GW2.

That’s a pipe dream in all likelihood.

Wow Serious, we agree. I rather think it’s the latter.

I don’t agree. ) nerf on Alacrity means that all my cooldowns will be excessively long and my shatter/heal rate seriously curtailed.

To compound that Sigil of Energy has been wrecked. Again that lowers my clone production and ability to shatter and heal.

Well of Precognition was the cornerstone of Chronobunker. It has been made more or less worthless. Aegis won’t survive 1/2 second.

Blind, a primary defense (via shatter and Chaos Armor ) is being removed from Chaos Armor.

Your theory sounds good on the forum but it’s not going to work in real games. That’s the more true considering the thief buffs.

This is a considered assassination of Mesmer and Chronobunker is not going to work without; it’s primary defense, a means of shortening cooldowns, much of it’s clone production, much of it’s heal ability and the majority of it’s DPS.

What you’re saying won’t work in a real game, try again.

@LordOtto I got my PvP 80 on Mesmer quite a while back when it was generally acknowledged that Mesmer was trash tier. That was done almost exclusively in ranked solo queue. I came into the class shortly after the huge confusion nerf and endured 3 years of not even being able to engage a warrior. I’m in no way a bandwagon Chronobunker.

No Mesmer is not being balanced. It’s being nerfed into the pavement. ANET has consistently left Mesmer UP for months and even years.

As to “man up” that is the very last thing I want to do.

I would be overjoyed to play a Mesmer that was on equal power terms with the rest of the classes. The issues is that other classes don’t want to learn how to deal with a Mesmer. Instead they QQ every time they lose to one.

I’ll laugh long and loud if PU condi Mesmer returns.. It’s crumby, but given the choices that are being left to Mesmer it may become a popular choice. Then the QQ will reach fever pitch.

Uhm.. ANET will make Bunker Chronomancer and Chronomancer generally close to unusable in 2 days. With that in mind, I’ve been working on improving in a build that “might” be allowed to still be playable.

That goes for the Cele builds as well. I find the snarky advice a little silly in light of reality.